Employment Legal Help If you have been working remotely for your employer – which means you work from home – you must be paid for any work that you do. If you aren’t being paid for working at home, you are being cheated out of your pay and that is form of wage theft. There are several things that must be reviewed and considered to determine your situation and how to proceed with a claim against your employer.
Always keep documentation and supporting evidence. Don’t hesitate to contact human resources for additional information, and keep all memos and emails so you can support your claim if you are the victim of wage theft.
Does Your Company Have A Work From Home Policy?
You should be familiar with your company’s work from home policy. This should be clearly indicated in your handbook or in the documents you have been given to detail your job description, work duties, company policies, and procedures. Many companies have a work from home policy, but some companies don’t have such a policy. With some jobs, it isn’t possible to work from home and therefore, you wouldn’t be paid because work from home isn’t authorized.
If you cannot find a written policy for working from home with your employer, you should talk with your human resources department to find out what the policy is and if working from home is permitted. If you do work from home, ask how they want you to record your time so you can be paid properly. You need to make sure you understand what you are supposed to do and how it should be done so all your bases are covered.
What Should I Do?
You should know what system to use to keep track of your hours. Be sure to document what you did and be aware of what you were able to accomplish during your work time from home. You will need to keep copies of all the time logs and documentation of what you accomplished, so you can compare that with your paystub. You will need to confirm that you were paid for all the work that you did at home.
If you notice a discrepancy in your pay and your work, you should report it to your company’s human resources department right away. You will want to give them time to correct the problem, and if they don’t address the issue in a timely manner you should talk with an employment law attorney about your situation and your wage theft.
Always keep track of when you logged on and when you logged off. You will want to make sure you report all your work hours and you want to make sure you properly report your hours worked at home. If you misreport your time, you cannot receive all the pay that you have earned. Accuracy is important on your behalf to ensure your employer processes all the work properly.
How An Attorney Can Help You
If you believe you worked from home and you weren’t paid properly, you should speak with an employment law attorney who is licensed in your state to handle wage theft cases. With an attorney representing you, you are much more likely to recover your losses. Employment law attorneys work on a contingency basis, so you will not pay anything out of pocket. Instead, your lawyer will only be paid if, and when you win your claim.
You will need evidence and supporting documentation to win your claim. This means copies of any employment documents, including contracts and handbooks. You will need any memos or emails that might discuss the work from home policy. Also, any correspondence that you have with human resources and managers about working from home and how to track your time, the company’s procedures and how to report your work and how to show what you got done at home. Then be sure to keep all paystubs, so you can show how they compare to what you worked and the time that you reported and how much you were owed.
You do have a time limit or a statute of limitations for pursuing an employment law claim against your employer for wage theft. If you have been the victim of wage theft, complete the Free Case Evaluation Form on this page so a wage theft lawyer near you can review the details of your case and determine the best way to proceed with a claim so you can recover compensation for your damages.